Dolly Parton's final recorded vocal performance will close out U2's new album - and Bono says he still can't bring himself to listen to it.
The Irish rock band announced Carnaval De Luz, their first album of new material in nine years, arriving Nov. 13. The closing track, "Torn," is a duet between Bono and Parton, recorded in June - about two months before the country icon's death on Aug. 25 at age 80 following a brief battle with cancer.
Bono told Rolling Stone that Parton was already ill when they recorded the song together. "When she got ill, she got out of her bed to sing this song," he said. "And you can hear that. And I can't even listen to it now."
The collaboration almost happened differently. Bono had originally approached Parton about an unreleased Irish folk side project, but she turned it down - "That's a little too Irish for me," she told him. Instead, she offered up a song of her own called "Torn" and asked if he wanted to rework it. Bono and Snow Patrol's Johnny McDaid rewrote the lyrics around a mother watching her family split apart, and Parton agreed to sing the new version. "She sang her heart out," Bono said. "I cannot believe that's an 80-year-old woman."
Parton heard and approved the final mix before she died. Producer Garret "Jacknife" Lee said the team worried she might be uncomfortable with the result - instead, "she loved it. She was so proud of her vocal."
It's a fitting final note for an artist whose gospel roots - she grew up singing in her grandfather's Pentecostal church - shaped her music from the very beginning.
Related Article: Dolly Parton's Final Recording Is a Duet With Bono-What Did She Leave Behind in "Torn"?
